Ahhh the Super Bowl. Americas most viewed day of television. The day where without any excuse or regard, it is not only acceptable but encouraged to gorge yourself with incredibly unhealthy food and drink. Generally shared with a group of friends or family, and whether you care about the sport of football or not, it is destined to be a fun day for all. Yes, it comes with down sides. For instance, Baltimore winning last night was quite the let-down. Joe Flacco taking home the MVP trophy was even a bit more of a disappointment. But aside from certain teams winning or losing, peoples expectations of everything that surrounds the game are set very high. The commercials for instance, are even critiqued and ridiculed as if the one purpose they serve is to thoroughly entertain the viewer, not advertise a product to them. And of course, we have the halftime show. The sometimes dreaded (Black Eyed Peas), sometimes scandalous (JT and Janet Jackson), and sometimes decrepit (Rolling Stones/Paul McCartney) halftime show. This year, was not any of these things. In fact, quite the opposite. This year we were blessed with watching one of the most beautiful creatures that walks this Earth do what she does best: Entertain. The one and only Mrs. Carter. Sasha Fierce. The Queen of Single Ladies everywhere. Blue Ivy’s Mom. Beyonce!
Last year I explained how Super Bowl halftime shows are usually a chore to watch. Well if you are like me, I think you’ll agree that there is nothing about watching Beyonce dance that resembles a chore. In fact, that is something I enjoy very, very much. As GIF’d above, she opened with an extremely dramatic zoom into a silhouetted figure of her goddess-like body standing before these wild flames as people from the crowd rushed the stage. My heart was pounding and my blood was rushing and the show hadn’t even begun yet.
After watching two different Beyonce documentaries (yes, I actually have watched two different Beyonce documentaries) I feel as if I know a a thing or two about my girl “B”. One, she is a perfectionist. Everything that goes down on stage is extremely well-thought out, and rehearsed to the max. Two, she is a control freak. This goes somewhat hand-in-hand with her perfectionism, and it all makes for a brilliant show. I couldn’t help but keep thinking, this looks as if it was pre-recorded. Too many shots were just perfectly timed. Typically during live performances, the cameraman have wider, blander shots. They have to guess where the performers will be moving to next on stage, and gives them a few seconds to establish something cool before moving on. Last night’s performance was more reminiscent to The Rolling Stones/Martin Scorcesse concert film, Shine A Light. The shots were fluid, controlled, well-framed allowing for a much more enjoyable viewing experience. Especially with those tight shots of Beyonce’s body. I attribute a lot of this credit to Beyonce for knowing and getting exactly what she wants out of the performance. She even snuck in some visual trickery with the LED screen behind her, sometimes making it hard to determine exactly how many Beyonce’s you were looking at. And if one thing is for certain, it’s that you can never be seeing too many Beyonce’s.
Still not too bootylicious for me.
Moving on, aside from the aesthetical pleasantries and the well-timed/well-choreographed movement of the show, Beyonce’s pipes sounded like a they were being powered by lightning. She has to have one of the more powerful voices in the world, and the control and confidence she has with it is equally as impressive. She also has an amazing way of balancing her movement and facial expression with her voice. When she sounds fierce, she looks fierce. When she sounds soft and lovely, she looks soft and lovely. And by lovely I mean absolutely drop-dead f***ing gorgeous.
No caption necessary … But thank you to whomever made this GIF
I also thought bringing out Destiny’s Child was quite the bold move. Here is a women that not only collaborates with but is married to one of the most powerful and recognizable men, not only in the music industry, but also the world. Instead of parading him around and letting him try to steal the show on the biggest stage she has have ever been offered, she brings back her long out-of-practice R&B girl-group that has quite the dated sound from the 90′s. Was it the highlight of the performance? No. The energy level actually took quite a dip in the opposite direction. As also did the on-stage intensity. However, I have to say that displaying her roots of what initially made Beyonce who she is now rather than showing off the trophy husband that is guaranteed to get every head turned, is a very bold, gutsy, and respectable move. After the fellow children of destiny left the stage, Beyonce gave us a bit more solo time, and left everyone back on quite the high note.
I admittedly have always had quite a lot of love for Beyonce. After (undeservingly) being so harshly criticized for the National Anthem incident, I am very glad to see her kill this performance. People with her creativity, drive, passion, and talent are too rare in that realm of the music industry to just toss to the wayside after a such incidences. In my opinion, she proved many things in this performance. She can sing. She can dance. She’s one of the hottest women on the planet, no matter how scary of a face she makes. She can entertain. She knows her roots, and is not ashamed of them. And she doesn’t need her husband to help sling-shot her popularity or provide an excellent halftime show. No Jay-Z, no problem.
Just in case you missed the performance, you can view it here:
Beyonce’s Super Bowl Halftime Show
Getting a bit excited there about Beyonce!
Timing isn’t great for us Brits. I caught most of first half, lingered for Beyonce, saw the great touchdown by Jones from his own goal line then had to get to bed at 1.30 am with work the next day.
Have to say you Americans know how to put on a half time show. Beyonce rocked!
But I’m surprised that Jones didn’t get MVP with those two stunning touchdowns, just before and after half time, which owed everything to his sheer pace. Won the game. Does MVP always go to the winning quarterback?
Ha! In my opinion Beyonce is a reason to get excited.
Unfortunately, it seems that MVP is in fact always given to the QB these days. Which was especially brutal this year because Flacco is not an MVP worthy QB. I’d agree that Jones was more worthy. In full disclosure, I think 49ers got pretty screwed in general. The game was sort of given to the Ravens.
Ok, got it. Quite the gusher, aren’t you? >;-> Yup, she has a similar effect on me too.
Haha! Hard not to gush over such a specimen.
On a different note, if you or Wes or Austin likes jazz, give Rudresh Mahanthappa’s latest, ‘Gamak’ a spin
I am a big fan of Jazz. Thanks for the recommendation, I will check him out soon.